Tag: government officials

His zeal for public health and safety is unabated, despite a resounding “No,” from the courts in response to his ridiculous legislation banning large cups and bottles of soda. Now, the “capeless crusader” has turned once again to the item which health crusaders attack most often and most viciously: cigarettes and other forms of smoking tobacco.

The Capeless Crusader: Tireless Defender of Everyone Else’s Health

Don’t get me wrong: I don’t endorse smoking, nor do I smoke. But neither do I endorse the government-funded war on smoking. My reason for this is simple: smoking is not healthy, it’s true. But neither is eating too much. And the zealots are already turning toward overeating as their next crusade, starting with a seemingly innocuous requirement that restaurants post calorie content of each menu item. Today, require caloric content to be posted. Tomorrow, completely ban the food items that are the unhealthiest.

All that aside, I think the Mayor’s actions speak for themselves. And they say . . .

In honor of Senator Rand Paul (and his recent filibuster), here is an incredibly relevant poem that is a prayer for men who aren’t afraid to lead. There are several lines that stood out to me as readily observable characteristics of this man among boys in Washington, but I will leave the entire poem in original form, invite you to read it (it’s quite brief), and then comment and tell me which lines you saw that reminded you of something about this statesman.

God give us men! A time like this demands

Strong minds, great hearts, true faith, and ready hands;

Men who the lust of office does not kill;

Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy;

Men who possess opinions and a will;

Men who have honor; men who will not lie;

Men who can stand before a demagogue

And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking!

Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog

In public duty and in private thinking;

For while the rabble, with their thumb-worn creeds,

Their large professions and their little deeds,

Mingle in selfish strife, lo! Freedom weeps,

Wrong rules the land and waiting Justice sleeps.

— Josiah Gilbert Holland

Brief, but powerful–and laden with commentary on our day, even though it was written over a hundred years ago.

Do you see any characteristics of Senator Rand Paul in this poem? Do you disagree with my classification of him as a statesman?

The sequester has taken effect, and the President continues to pitch a fit. According to a recent article, the White House will cease all tours after this week, citing the sequester as the reason for the cutback.

Well, no tour for the kiddos this spring break….

Oh, please.

You can’t find any better way to deal with the situation? As the author of the above-referenced article correctly states, this brings to mind petty and childish behavior (“I’m gonna take my ball and go home.”). Instead of causing “alarm to the children” by closing the White House right before spring break, why not do something meaningful to help save the money the sequester is supposed to take out of the budget? Something like–oh, I don’t know–cut out a few rounds of golf? Or drop one of those garishly expensive vacations from the Imperial schedule? (Ahem! excuse me, the Presidential schedule.)

“If we’re not playing my way, I don’t wanna play at all!!”

And as for the closure causing alarm to the children: really now? Because a few kids will have their feelings hurt because their every whim isn’t granted this spring break, we’re supposed to cave on fiscal responsibility and do away with this drop in the bucket of a cut to the projected spending increase?

What the sequester really looks like. Notice that the cuts don’t even change the slope of the line.

Mr. and Ms. Plutocrats of the Potomac, y’all remember something: you work for me. And your constituents. And we have a new order of operation for y’all:

Give us a break . . . We’re not as dumb as you think we are.

Here’s what the politicians have been screaming would happen if the sequester took effect: riots in the streets. Millions without proper food as meat spoiled for lack of USDA inspectors to verify its quality. Hundreds of thousands realizing that their children would not receive as much help at school as thousands of teachers would be laid off. Tens of thousands of first responders (police officers, paramedics, and firefighters) laid off, resulting in less effective crime control, accident response, and fire-fighting capabilities.

In short, the end of the world. Total chaos. Widespread panic.

I see dead people….walking!

Thousands rushed to the stores to stock up on bread, milk, eggs, meat, frozen goods, and tofu. The manufacturers of these commodities smiled and raked in the cash, silently thanking the Good Lord above for Obama’s imbecilic and childish portrayal of the sequester as the end of the world, laughing in their sleeves as they collected from the people foolish enough to buy into the hype.

You’ve heard of post-Christmas syndrome (when someone goes on a credit card binge and then gets the bill in January: “I spent HOW MUCH?!?!?”)? Well, there’s a new post- syndrome in town:

Post-sequester syndrome.

Good thing you bought six months’ worth of groceries, bro…

For those of you who may know someone suffering with this painful condition, remember: gentle compassion is the best antidote. Try to put yourself in the person’s shoes, see how the “extremely persuasive” rhetoric could have induced the panic, and sympathize with them as much as possible. I sure hope you’re not reading this post while you’re near them:

CNN is running sob stories about government agents who could “lose their jobs” if the sequester cuts take place as scheduled. The crisis-monger-in-chief is in full voice in his latest campaign against, of all people, himself. The media and the President would love for us to forget that the sequester cuts were the brainchild of the Obama White House, but we haven’t dis-remembered, have we?

This, as Boehner correctly claims (whatever you may think of Boehner overall, he is right here) is the only way to get this administration to even consider cuts to spending. This is because the President correctly believes that if more people are on the assistance rolls, more people will vote for the administration that allowed them to get on the government dole. That’s the ugly truth.

The other ugly truth is that the recipients of this “domestic aid” are more likely to process arguments on the basis of emotion, rather than logical merit. This means that these sob stories in the news, that cause some to snort in disgust, are causing widespread panic among the progressive voter base. It’s important to remember that this is a 2-3% reduction of projected spending (not current spending, what we said last year that we would spend this year) that is causing this much sound and fury. The current media frenzy and month-long love-fest with the White House proves that the President is not committed to any meaningful action to encourage bi-partisan-ism; rather, he is still committed to what has become his modus operandi: governing by using crises (many of them manufactured) to broaden government intermeddling with the everyday affairs of American citizens.

What the sequester really looks like. Notice that the cuts don’t even change the slope of the line.

Yes, the sequester is–as Boehner put it–a messy, “meat-ax” of a way to cut spending. But it’s also necessary. It is not, as the media is hysterically screaming, the end of the world, or even of the nation. In a world gone crazy, it’s important to remember that denying the cost of something doesn’t do away with the cost…just your awareness of it. It’s also interesting to wonder: if a tiny reduction of future spending causes this much furor, might not any meaningful cuts be protested by full-scale riots in the streets?

America is heading–seemingly deaf, and half-blinded by lustful selfishness–in the wrong direction, and only an act of God will bring it back.

I know I’ve said a lot about the issue of gun control over the last few months. I’m also aware the news is full of stories about gun violence and the need to “do something” about it. Usually, the ones feeding us these reports are the ones lecturing us that the government really needs to do something about this important issue.

There are two things to remember. The first is that the Second Amendment was not drafted to give Americans the right to own guns for hunting or other sporting purposes. The Second wasn’t even drafted to give Americans the right to own weapons for self-defense. Freshly released from the bondage of tyranny, the men who founded this country wrote the Second Amendment to give the people the right to own weapons to defend themselves from any tyrants. This, of course, extended to the government, should those in charge forget their office as public servants of the people, and begin to attempt to run rough-shod over the personal property and rights of the people under them.

The second thing to remember is that the Constitution is the supreme law of the land. The Bill of Rights encapsulates several of those “…certain, inalienable rights…” that each of us has been “…endowed [with] by [our] Creator…” The Constitution clearly spells out the process for amending its provisions. Until such a process has been followed on this matter, any “law” that is passed to ensure we take the “morally defensible” “high road” is neither law nor morally defensible nor the high road to anywhere. Except perhaps The Pit. Or possibly Europe.

Of course, there are many things that these statements skim right over, including the redefinition both of the Constitution’s meaning (think “original intent”) and the rights of the American people (think “universal health care,” “too big to fail,” and “welfare.”) . I don’t want to get bogged down with a technical discussion of these matters now…look for more in later posts.

What I do want to do is share an important bit of history with you, my readers. Some of you may not be aware of the event to which I refer. I know I wasn’t before I read about it on a friend’s Facebook wall. While I know that not everything on Facebook is true, I verified this and it is an actual historical event. A Google search renders several good entries, including this excellent article at History.com:

December 29, 2012 marked the 122nd Anniversary of the murder of 297 Sioux Indians at Wounded Knee Creek on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. These 297 people, in their winter camp, were murdered by federal agents and members of the 7th Cavalry who had come to confiscate their firearms “for their own safety and protection”. The slaughter began after the majority of the Sioux had peacefully turned in their firearms. The Calvary began shooting, and managed to wipe out the entire camp. 200 of the 297 victims were women and children. About 40 members of the 7th Cavalry were killed, but over half of them were victims of fratricide from the Hotchkiss guns of their overzealous comrades-in-arms. Twenty members of the 7th Cavalry’s death squad, were deemed “National Heroes” and were awarded the Medal of Honor for their acts of [cowardice] heroism.

We hear very little of Wounded Knee today. It is usually not mentioned in our history classes or books. What little that does exist about Wounded Knee is normally a sanitized “Official Government Explanation”. And there are several historically inaccurate depictions of the events leading up to the massacre, which appear in movie scripts and are not the least bit representative of the actual events that took place that day.

Wounded Knee was among the first federally backed gun confiscation attempts in United States history. It ended in the senseless murder of 297 people.

I don’t normally break up a block-quote, as you know, but let that sink in. Nearly THREE HUNDRED PEOPLE. Murdered. For obeying thelaw.

Before you jump on the emotionally charged bandwagon for gun-control, take a moment to reflect on the real purpose of the Second Amendment, the right of the people to take up arms in defense of themselves, their families, and property in the face of invading armies or an oppressive government. The argument that the Second Amendment only applies to hunting and target shooting is asinine. When the United States Constitution was drafted, “hunting” was an everyday chore carried out by men and women to put meat on the table each night, and “target shooting” was an unheard of concept. Musket balls were a precious commodity and were certainly not wasted on “target shooting”. The Second Amendment was written by people who fled oppressive and tyrannical regimes in Europe, and it refers to the right of American citizens to be armed for defensive purposes, should such tyranny arise in the United States.

As time goes forward, the average citizen in the United States continually loses little chunks of personal freedom or “liberty”. Far too many times, unjust gun control bills were passed and signed into law under the guise of “for your safety” or “for protection”. The Patriot Act signed into law by G.W. Bush, was expanded and continues under Barack Obama. It is just one of many examples of American citizens being stripped of their rights and privacy for “safety”. Now, the Right to Keep and Bear Arms is on the table, and will, most likely be attacked to facilitate the path for the removal of our firearms, all in the name of “our safety”.

This is the crux of the matter. Once we elevate safety as king, above freedom, we will always, always, ALWAYS surrender our freedom and our rights so that we can be “safe.” In reality, however, this is like the appeaser in Churchill’s famous illustration. He “…feeds the crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.” Safety, as it turns out, isn’t really all that safe. Back to the text:

Before any American citizen blindly accepts whatever new firearms legislation that is about to be doled out, they should stop and think about something for just one minute-

Evil does exist in our world. It always has and always will. Throughout history evil people have committed evil acts. In the Bible one of the first stories is that of Cain killing Abel. We cannot legislate “evil” into extinction. Good people will abide by the law, and the criminal element will always find a way around it.

Evil exists all around us, but looking back at the historical record of the past 200 years, across the globe, where is “evil” and “malevolence” most often found? In the hands of those with the power, the governments. That greatest human tragedies on record and the largest loss of innocent human life can be attributed to governments. Who do the governments always target? “Scapegoats” and “enemies” within their own borders…but only after they have been disarmed to the point where they are no longer a threat. Ask any Native American, and they will tell you it was inferior technology and lack of arms that contributed to their demise. Ask any Armenian why it was so easy for the Turks to exterminate millions of them, and they will answer “We were disarmed before it happened”. Ask any Jew what Hitler’s first step prior to the mass murders of the Holocaust was- confiscation of firearms from the people.

Wounded Knee is the prime example of why the Second Amendment exists, and why we should vehemently resist any attempts to infringe on our Rights to Bear Arms. Without the Second Amendment we will be totally stripped of any ability to defend ourselves and our families. [emphases mine]

I’m a peaceable, law-abiding citizen who believes that I’m commanded by God to follow the rules that the government lays down. However, I also believe that when the government lays down laws that contradict the supreme law of the land (the Constitution), and my life (the Bible), I must obey God rather than man.

The facts are in, and they are clear. The gun control presently in effect is neither controlling guns nor reducing crime. It is simply increasing the likelihood that a law-abiding citizen will become the next victim of a homicidal maniac with a gun. This is because criminals (hope you’re sitting down) don’t follow laws.That’s why we call them criminals. Okay?

One more thing: The criminals that commit gun crimes? Most of them use guns stolen or otherwise acquired illegally. This renders null and void the argument that registration will make it easier to locate the criminal in a firearms-related incident. It will simply enable law enforcement to trace the weapon back to the (often-unsuspecting) legal owner. This means more headache for the law official and the law-abiding citizen.

Gun control is pawned off on us as the moral high ground. A baser lie has never been told! I’ll put it to you simply: Advocacy for gun control is the belief that a woman being found in an alleyway, brutally raped, and strangled with her own pantyhose, is somehow morally superior to that same woman explaining why her would-be attacker is lying dead on the pavement with seven (or eight) bullets from a large-caliber handgun lodged in his chest. In other words, the murder of this lady is more justifiable (or more appealing?) than that lady shooting the sicko who would seek to debauch her.

Before you accuse me of being vile or using reprehensible imagery to promote my point, let me remind you that we are talking about criminals and violent crimes, two vile and reprehensible subjects if there ever were any.

Two parting thoughts:

One. If the leftists control the moral high ground, as they repeatedly claim, why do they use morally reprehensible language and tactics to defend it? (After all, the conservatives aren’t the ones stealing elections, overturning cars, throwing pies, and taking baseball bats to those who disagree with their views.)

Two. Gun control is not legislation to make it more difficult to own and use guns in self-defense against attackers (be they rapists, home invaders, common burglars, or government agents). Gun control is using two hands, taking time to practice and prepare, knowing your weapon and your capabilities with said weapon, and consistently hitting your target.

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New Year 2014!

New Year's DayJanuary 1st, 2014

2013 has been a year full of surprises, blessings, and struggles that have made for a productive and eventful year. Yet, as many others, the author of this blog looks forward to 2014 with anticipation and a touch of anxiety. Join us over the next few weeks for a series of posts on stress, anxiety, the future, and how one thing can make all the difference in dealing with each.